Morocco has in recent weeks strengthened the border with Melilla by building a few hundred meters of intermediate fence section between the sharp accordion-strewn fence on the Moroccan side and the separating barrier system in the Spanish zone, up to 10 meters high and topped by mechanisms be used to prevent pinching. The new security structure, complemented by levees with ditches, is in an advanced stage of completion, as was observed this Saturday near the Chinatown border crossing, Rabat security services sources confirmed. In the same spot, at least 23 sub-Saharan Africans lost their lives trying to storm the fence to invade Spanish territory, according to Moroccan authorities a year ago.
“There are no more irregular migrants in Nador,” says a security official in charge of relations with the Spanish media covering the anniversary of the tragedy at the Melilla fence in front of the closed Chinatown border. “The fence is being reinforced in a damaged section and ditches have also been dug,” he stressed, but without allowing photos to be taken in the area. Behind him could still be seen the portions of tall metal structures and wire fences that had been brought down in the June 24, 2022 attack by nearly 2,000 sub-Saharan Africans, the vast majority of whom were Sudanese. According to the Moroccan authorities, local and international humanitarian NGOs have brought the death toll to 37 by including migrants who allegedly perished in their forced relocation to remote areas of the Maghreb country. These organizations also report the disappearance of 76 people.
According to a cemetery worker, the remains of Mohamed Ali Adam, who was born in Sudan in 1987, rest at the Sidi Salem Cemetery in Nador. His tomb is identical to the rest of the tombs, with a small ceramic plaque bearing his dates, although there are no manicured plants covering it on earth as in many other tombs. She is the only victim of the Melilla fence tragedy who has been identified so far from photos sent to her relatives. “You can’t go through there,” the same cemetery worker warned journalists trying to get closer to the two dozen unearthed and still empty graves at one end of the site. In the freezers of the morgue of a hospital in Nador, 22 bodies of sub-Saharan Africans who died trying to cross the border into Melilla by force have been waiting for identification for a year. Several groups of people from Spanish NGOs working in the region took to the fence this Saturday to express their opposition and to demand a thorough investigation into last summer’s tragedy.
Closed passage of Chinatown from the Moroccan side.
There are no black Africans on the streets of Nador, nor in nearby Beni Ensar, which borders Melilla. Nor on nearby Mount Gurugú, where they camped until they found an opportunity to jump. Along the narrow road that goes up you can see a bird’s eye view of the coastline of the tip of Cabo de las Tres Forcas, where you can see Melilla and the Mar Chica or Nador marine lagoon. At the top of Gurugú, the military installations block the way for visitors. On the hillside, just a stone’s throw from the Chinatown border, there is a barracks for the mobile security forces. Half a dozen tents outside indicate it has been reinforced with more agents.
“There are no more black people here,” says Mohamed, 70, a retired Spanish worker who lives in Melilla, as he feeds his calves along a bend in the mountain road. “Since I retired I’ve become a rancher to entertain myself,” he laughs, composing a pastoral scene with his cattle near ravines where the Riffian intrigues of the nationalist Abdelkrim a little over a century ago 150 Spanish soldiers massacred. “There used to be a lot of immigrants. They never messed with anyone and never touched my cows,” he explains with a friendly expression, but without allowing himself to be photographed. “They lived in caves, in tents, in the forest, but a year ago the police threw them all out. The guards come to search the area almost every day. “There aren’t any more of them,” he concludes.
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Omar Naji, head of the Nador section of the Moroccan Human Rights Association, has assured that there are still some migrants around Mount Gurugú. “Almost all of them left before Spanish and Moroccan immigration policies were based solely on security. They hide day and night to avoid being arrested or deported to other parts of the country,” Naji specified in an interview ahead of events organized by the AMDH this Saturday to mark the anniversary of the Melilla fence tragedy.
The AMDH says it counted 27 dead and 70 missing in its latest report, presented to mark the anniversary of the tragedy. He says he has documented incidents of police violence in the sub-Saharan African camps on Mount Gurugú, including the destruction of tents and the burning of food supplies, that preceded the massive attack on the fence between June 23 and 24, 2022.
Their research on the ground, the Nador association points out, confirms that the migrants were able to walk more than four miles from Mount Gurugú to the fence at the Chinatown post without being intercepted during a mass march that lasted an hour and a half, despite passing by a police station.
The Moroccan organization for the defense of human rights assures that the victims’ relatives, some of whom were from the United Kingdom, Oman or Norway, could not identify their remains due to the restrictions imposed by the authorities that allowed them to see the bodies.
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